Penny War

NAMES AND FACES

Students' Battle Was Fun, Clean And For A Good Cause.

"Each class had one week to fill up a three gallon water jug. When two of the classes overflowed their water jugs, we started working on five-gallon garbage cans," she explained.

Students, parents, teachers and even cafeteria workers emptied their pockets and piggy banks as the competition heated up.

The prize for the class collecting the most pennies was the opportunity to miss sixth period class and attend the second annual student/teacher volleyball game.

Sixth-graders won the prize.

Student Council officers Lori Stanbury, president; Evyan Wagner, vice president; Shauna Carpenter, secretary and treasurer Jodee Schlossberg along with 50 council representatives were faced with the task of counting and rolling all the pennies.

Some of the advanced classes were called upon to help with the task.

"We wanted to help kids through the Make A Wish Foundation," said Shauna Carpenter. "We raised a lot of money. A lot of kids brought in big bags, like Publix bags, full of pennies. I rolled over a hundred rolls of pennies. It was just great."

Ryan Miskura and Tricia Ferrara, although not council members, were enthusiastic supporters of the Penny War.

Ryan served "as a security chief" and Tricia was actively involved with the fund-raiser "from start to finish."

"Mrs. Colletti asked who could help out with the project," said Ryan. "My stepfather has cancer, so I decided to help out. I sat up on the stage during lunch hour to make sure that no one switched the containers because we were competing against each other. I rolled 150 to 200 rolls of pennies.

"It [the volleyball game) was a good game. Of course the teachers always kill us, but it was fun. We've been waiting a whole year for the game," he said.

The school's bookkeeper, Veronica Cerri, bagged the coins in $50 bags from Wells Fargo, which transported all 2,400 rolls of pennies to First Union Bank.

The Penny War was such a success that the council wants to sponsor it again next year with the proceeds going to a different charitable organization.